[Consortium] Ubuntu Studio 7.04 released

[Cory K.]

Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia editing/creation flavor of Ubuntu. It's
built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or
professional.

The Ubuntu Studio team is proud to announce its first release: 7.04 for
Intel i386-compatible processors. With this release, which you can
download for DVD in little over 860 MB, we offer a feature that is
somewhat reminiscent of Ubuntu Server: on installation, you can choose
between the Audio, Graphics or Video tasks; and choose also to install a
number of plugins, which for this release is mainly aimed at audio
production.

We have endeavored to keep as many of our packages in the standard
Ubuntu repositories as possible. Certain packages, such as wired and our
art packages, are kept in an external repository and fully up to Ubuntu
packaging standards. Be aware however, that this is only a temporary
solution and we will be pushing all our packages into Ubuntu for the
next release.

The Audio task also provides a different kernel to the Video and
Graphics tasks, which has low latency to enable easy JACK work, and for
Gutsy we will be providing a fully realtime enabled setup. We have built
upon the usability and support of Ubuntu as a foundation, and are
certain that this was a wise choice, for we have access to a wide range
of packages in the repository, and a stable base system.

For the video task, we have chosen the GStreamer-based PiTiVi as our
central NLE. PiTiVi is written in Ubuntu's favorite scripting language,
Python, and the GStreamer back-end enables it to use all the
GStreamer-compatible codecs that are installed, and thus taking
advantage of Feisty's Easy Codec Installation. It also uses our favorite
widget set, GTK+, and thus keeps with the theme and flow of the Ubuntu
Studio desktop, and tries also to stay usable in any environment, in
keeping with Ubuntu Studio's aim that media production should be simple
and accessible.

We have also packaged Ardour 2, which will debut on our disc. Our theme
is heavily based around the dark style of Ardour and many other audio
applications, and we are trying to have a release that is as integrated
as possible with all of our applications and tasks.

Finally, the Graphics task deserves some attention. We have included a
very wide range of very high quality applications that are also very
well known. What we have done is added to this selection (with Enblend,
for example), and brought them all together into a coherent set. Some
main packages to note are the GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Hugin and
Scribus, which are all provided with a default install of the Ubuntu
Studio Graphics task.

As our wiki page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio states: "Our
aim is to make it more accessible for new users to get into the tools
that GNU/Linux has to offer for multimedia creation/production. We also
want to spotlight what's out there. Show users tools they might not have
know existed." We have certainly fulfilled that aim with our first
release with 7.04, and can only continue to improve.

Thanks to all who helped in Ubuntu Studios creation! Bring on the show!

Our main site should contain all info you need to get started.
http://ubuntustudio.org